On the eve of the beginning of the academic year, Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Anatoliy Melnychenko, who this summer replaced the long-time head of Kyiv Polytechnic Mykhailo Zgurovsky, met with the editor-in-chief of the university newspaper, answered the questions of the editorial board and told about the plans and main goals of the new management team of our university.
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- Dear Anatoliy Anatoliyovych, the election of the rector of KPI is a kind of involvement of a person in history, not only of KPI, but also of Ukrainian science and education. At the same time, each rector is the beginning of a new stage in the life of the university. However, our university has built strong traditions over the years. It was respect for traditions that was mentioned in the first point of your election program. So what traditions do you want to preserve, what traditions do you want to develop, what new things do you want to introduce into the life of KPI?
- Indeed, we have talked about traditions many times, and not only during the election campaign. I have already said in some interviews that we have a long-established tradition of respect for our history, respect for the schools of thought that were formed at the university. This tradition must continue. We understand that the achievements of those scientists and engineers who founded scientific schools in the fields of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, aircraft construction, etc. must not only be preserved but also multiplied. The university should also preserve the tradition of raising the status of academic staff.
The second area of preserving the traditions of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and I have also repeatedly mentioned this, is to ensure a high level of fundamental training. I am convinced that providing strong fundamental training is one of the main secrets of KPI's success in all the years of its existence. I have had to look through some curricula that are forty to fifty years old to see the depth of study of certain disciplines, to look through historical documents to find out what students studied in different historical periods. Of course, in Soviet times, the programs had a very significant ideological and humanitarian component, but we put all this in brackets. At the same time, the curricula of that time included a very significant amount of fundamental disciplines. And we can see that engineers of those earlier periods were specialists who created serious equipment, had significant achievements that sometimes even changed the nature of production and influenced the development of entire industries. So I think we will definitely keep this tradition alive.
As for the establishment of new traditions, I would like to see a tradition and culture that any of our academic staff who obtains an important scientific result in their research and development would register the intellectual property right to it together with the university. And then he would receive royalties. In other words, both the proper administration of this activity and its legal support and maintenance should become a tradition. So far, we have not mastered this area properly.
There are traditions of honoring our heroes, and we will certainly not deviate from them.
We would also like to return to traditions that have symbolic meaning for us: for example, the annual celebration of Freshman Days, but we will be able to return to it after our Victory; the tradition of organizing various events. Because our university has always stood out among others because it is not just a university that trains highly qualified specialists and conducts advanced research, but also a community where people and personalities are formed. A person is not born, a person emerges. And in the KPI environment, people of a special spirit emerge. I can see this in myself and in many of my friends and acquaintances whom I have made at KPI. We have been going through life together since the first year. Self-identification of a person as belonging to KPI is very important. For me personally, it is very valuable when a person with whom I intersect in any sphere is a graduate of our university. Therefore, the continuation and development of the tradition of identifying a person as part of the KPI community through the support of such an environment - educational, upbringing, cultural - is extremely important.
And, of course, I would like to strengthen the traditions of democratization of management. In particular, in terms of collective decision-making.
The tradition of leadership is also important to us. We must not only declare that we are leaders, but also traditionally move in the wake of the development of higher education.
- We have already started working on the University Development Strategy for the next 5 years. Of course, this is a collective effort, but some of its main directions have certainly already been outlined. What are they? What will be a priority for these years, what will just be adjusted, and what will remain unchanged?
- Since the previous Strategy was developed for the period until early 2025, we have to start implementing the Strategy for the next period in the new year. Its key principles will be announced and discussed by the staff in the fall. These will, of course, include the development of our research and innovation potential; issues related to the university's more active influence on the processes of sustainable development of communities (in particular, Kyiv and, in general, the whole of Ukraine), and the sustainable development of the university. This document will include several strategic programs: the Green University program, the Inclusive University program, etc. The issue of digitalization of our work and, in fact, the implementation of certain digital services in the activities of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute will be clearly reflected.
An important block of the Strategy will be the issue of internationalization, ensuring KPI's more active entry into foreign markets of educational services. And also strengthening our position in international rankings. The latter is not a matter of one year, because it is known that ratings are always determined for the previous year: for example, this year we have ratings based on the results of 2023, and for 2024 we will have them next year. But in any case, strengthening our position in international ratings and entering new ones is one of the most important areas for us.
In addition, part of the Strategy will be devoted to the transformation of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute into a center of defense technologies and training of specialists to work in the defense industry. This is an important area, and we will strengthen it. Let's be frank, even after our Victory, we will not get away from the borders with our aggressive neighbor. Therefore, we should always be ready to defend our country and stay ahead of the aggressor in the development of military capabilities. We will probably have to keep the state in a certain state of readiness all the time, as is the case, for example, in Israel.
And, of course, the security of the university community will remain in the center of attention. But not only it, because we also need to deal with issues of improving the comfort of the workspaces where people work, and improving the university's infrastructure. However, these areas will be integrated into the programs I mentioned.
Of course, we will continue to work on the accreditation of our educational programs, their international accreditation - these are traditional things that we will work on. And the new Strategy itself will be even broader than before. We can assume that it will contain some sections that are relevant to the current and, possibly, future situation. To do this, we need to constantly engage in scientific and educational analytics, which is an important element of our activities. By deeply analyzing and understanding the trends, we will be able to at least keep up with, or better yet, get ahead of the latest trends by incorporating them into educational programs and research.
- When we start moving in a certain direction, we must understand where we are coming from. This is probably related to your idea of the need for an “independent audit” that you expressed during the election campaign. What exactly will be checked and studied? How long and how will this audit take place? How are the auditors selected? And, if it is an external audit, at whose expense will it be conducted?
- If we are talking about an external audit, it should, of course, be conducted by an external audit organization. One of my first orders as rector was to set up a working group to prepare a number of materials: a certain terms of reference that would specify which elements would be audited: financial activities, administrative and managerial activities, possibly economic activities, and possibly others. The relevant terms of reference are being prepared. The next component of the commission's work is to select an external entity that will conduct the audit. First of all, we are certainly focused on non-state companies, although, in fact, the State Audit Service can also conduct the audit. But we would like to work with independent non-state companies that meet certain international standards. Such a company will be selected based on an analysis of all proposals. Funding will in no way come from the KPI budget. The audit should be funded either by sponsors - and the working group is currently conducting a series of negotiations on this - or on the principle of so-called pro bono (from Latin pro bono publico - for the public good, that is, services provided voluntarily and free of charge for the benefit of the community - ed. As for how long the audit will last, I cannot give an answer yet, the working group has to submit its proposals. When the list of companies that can be audited is determined, it will be clear how long it will take. Of course, the audit will not have to stop the work of the university or affect our performance in any way.
- Let's talk about the university's personnel policy. What will it be based on? Will the “social elevators” launched in the first days of your administration continue to operate? Will you put in place safeguards against ageism, which sometimes manifests itself in the activities of even the most respected institutions, when experienced scientists and employees are pushed aside just because of their age?
- Of course, ageism or any discrimination against employees on other grounds is simply unacceptable. I personally have great respect for our veterans, who are very experienced and wise employees. I hope they will continue to work. I know many of our professors and scientists who, even at a respectable age, have a powerful potential. They have a very good command of information technology and actively use it, and the knowledge they have is invaluable. Therefore, there should be no ageism. At the same time, what you say about “social elevators” is not just a matter of promoting someone. The key principles here are professionalism, integrity and willingness to take responsibility. The willingness to take responsibility should be considered in conjunction with the key performance indicators, because when a person moves to a new level, he or she must understand that he or she is committed to achieving certain results. So: professionalism, integrity, commitment to the university! And you can see that among the newly appointed to high management positions at the university there is not a single person not from the KPI orbit.
- Educational process. The main task of the university is to train specialists for Ukraine. Of course, the main thing here is to improve the quality of the educational process. You spoke about this during the election campaign. What exactly do you think should be improved and what should be abandoned?
- This is a rather complicated question. What should we give up? In some cases, it is probably worth abandoning the duplication of some disciplines with others - these are well-known problems. And some things, on the contrary, we should keep. And when updating educational programs, we should try to ensure that they not only meet the requirements of the current moment, but also equip graduates with the skills to be adaptable to further changes in technology in their subject areas. The update should also meet the needs of stakeholders, but we should realize that stakeholders also live with the needs of today. But we need to understand what the needs of the labor market will be in a few years' time. Therefore, the educational program should be prepared ahead of time and with the understanding that technologies will change, and we must catch and anticipate new trends. For this purpose, it may be necessary to conduct educational boosts: we realize that the development of science and technology is accelerating, and our graduates will be in demand by the labor market years after graduation. The lifeline here is again the fundamental component of training, which ensures that an engineer is highly adaptable, because otherwise he or she will not even be able to retrain quickly.
So the quality of education will be ensured by its novelty and fundamentality.
And, of course, if we're talking about engineering education, it will be ensured by equipment, practice-oriented training, and deep penetration into the high-tech labor market. It is worth expanding the practice of having business professionals from the relevant industries teach at our university.
The high quality of training at KPI is also due to the high demands on students. By the way, this can be attributed to the traditions we have already mentioned. Indeed, we are not afraid to expel dishonest students if they do not fulfill the requirements of the university.
Another component is improving the quality of educational content. Indeed, the content of education needs to be updated, especially in those disciplines that are professional in nature and help to professionalize the future specialist. The key to quality improvement is also the periodic updating of the teaching and methodological base.
In addition, continuous professional development and improvement of teachers is required. In particular, it is very important to improve their foreign language skills. Because a proficient English speaker not only works with his or her students, including foreign nationals, but also reads foreign professional periodicals and literature, which should be an integral part of his or her scientific and pedagogical activities.
Closely related to the quality of education is the issue of material and technical support of the educational process, updating the teaching and laboratory facilities. To this end, funds for these needs should be included in the university budget, partners should be engaged in the process of participating in the renovation of the laboratory facilities, and additional targeted funding should be sought.
And, among other things, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute should form people who know how to learn.
And one more element that is gaining particular importance today is the introduction of artificial intelligence into the educational process. The process of AI penetration into any sphere of life is inevitable. In education, too. If we wait for something to happen without us, we will lose. Therefore, we must develop leadership positions, learn how to implement these technologies in our educational activities in such a way that we can really use AI without depriving people of the opportunity to acquire professional competencies. Our graduates should not only be users of AI, they should be experts in a certain subject area and, at the same time, able to use artificial intelligence as an effective tool in their work. That is, AI is a powerful assistant, not a substitute for knowledge, skills, and competencies.
Returning to the logistics, in addition to what I have already said, we should add the need to continue the programs for the development of the university and its material and technical base that were launched earlier. They will probably be slightly revised, but they will continue to work.
- University science. KPI is a research university. Therefore, the scientific component in its activities should be and is very significant. How can we not only preserve but also increase the achievements of university researchers and developers of new technologies, and what is needed for this in the current environment?
- To do this, we must, first of all, deepen the interdisciplinarity and complexity of research. It should not be a trivialization of the subject matter, because even customers do not always understand this, but the preparation and proposal of comprehensive scientific solutions, when we solve several problems and, in the end, come up with a serious scientific or technical solution. And here, I would like to emphasize once again, interdisciplinarity is important, because at the intersection of industries and disciplines, there is a chance of getting good results.
The second important aspect in this regard is strengthening internationalization, working together with leading scientific schools and scientists from different countries.
The next element is taking into account the defense needs of our country and immersing ourselves in defense topics in research. This is especially relevant today and is in demand. Moreover, this is now a matter not only for Ukraine but for the whole world. We should think about ensuring the security of both individuals and entire countries. Therefore, even other countries will be interested in our new developments, integrated scientific and technical solutions, etc.
In addition, we have to master new forms of interaction with customers. Also, as we said at the beginning of our conversation, if a scientist stays at the level of his or her first successful scientific result and does not develop further, he or she will have a chance to get a certain burnout. That is why we must ensure a certain cycle of their activities: acquiring knowledge, research and obtaining a result, its legal protection and further commercialization. This should encourage the scientist to work further, to obtain new scientific results, and so on - according to a certain algorithm. This approach involves improving the relevant regulatory framework while forming a certain scientific and innovative culture at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Actually, the university has already begun to create it, although there are certain problems that hinder its further development. They need to be overcome - either by some administrative or financial measures, or by explanatory work, and most likely by all of us together.
- We have been talking all along about training engineers. However, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute trains not only future engineers, but also specialists in the humanities, who are also extremely needed by the state. In particular, during the war. Does the emphasis in their educational programs change taking into account the peculiarities of the historical period in which we live?
- In fact, we have been working on this for a long time. I myself, when I was the Dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Law, initiated changes in certain areas. For example, when Russia's aggression against Ukraine began in 2014, we saw that along with the Armed Forces, volunteer organizations enjoy the greatest public trust, and that the volunteer movement is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, we decided that instead of the existing program of social work with youth and families, we should establish a new one in the specialty “Social Work” that would meet the challenges of the times. And on its basis, we actually developed a new program “International Social Projects and Volunteer Activities,” realizing that volunteers are the people who made a significant difference in 2014 to save the whole of Ukraine, when our soldiers did not always have the necessary support. When I was approached by representatives of the leadership of the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine, we created the Conflict Resolution and Mediation program, which was supported by the British Embassy and the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation. We have made some reforms in the master's degree programs for lawyers. Some certificate programs in the relevant areas have also appeared. Now, taking into account the aspect of European integration, we have established a scientific master's program in European Studies. In this context, I cannot but mention some of our new programs related to physical rehabilitation of veterans and other issues. We have also launched advanced training courses in military psychology. So this unit also responds to military challenges, and I will say frankly that we still have plans and understanding of how to update some programs and perhaps open new ones.
- Many members of the university community are interested in your idea of introducing electronic petitions into university life. What, in your opinion, should be the procedure for submitting them, who will determine the minimum number of signatories, who will consider and make decisions and implement them?
- Electronic petitions, of course, should be sent to the university administration, first of all. This, by the way, will be one of the steps of the digitalization development program in the “Strategy...” we discussed. To define the signing procedure, we will need to resolve some technical issues to prevent fraud, resolve authorization issues, and other technological issues. We are already working on this.
And then we will determine the number of signatories that will allow us to accept the petition for consideration. Given that our KPI is a large university: more than 22 thousand students, 2.8 thousand teachers, several thousand people who ensure the functioning of the university infrastructure, we will decide whether this number will be a thousand or more people. The petitions should not be trivial, but should address fundamental issues of the university's activities and development. Then the petition that receives a certain number of votes will be considered. If it can indeed be implemented, administrative mechanisms will be put in place to bring these proposals to life. If, for one reason or another, the petition cannot be implemented, or, say, it poses any threats to the development of the university, or there are other objective circumstances that hinder it, then the KPI community will be given a reasonable answer as to why it cannot be implemented.
- The section of your program devoted to the development of a new model of university economy is very ambitious. How can the ideas set forth in it be implemented? How can the range of sources of funding for the educational process and science be expanded?
- The new economic model involves the implementation of the plans we have already discussed. This includes ensuring that KPI receives certain funds from inventive activity and the sale of licenses. This is optimizing the use of funds. A significant problem is energy saving: utility costs “eat up” huge amounts of money, so there is a need for proper cost accounting, elimination of unnecessary expenses, etc. This is also the aforementioned establishment of closer cooperation with partners. We also need to introduce, so to speak, fair pricing for educational and other services provided by the university. In addition, let's not forget about the rational use of our resource base.
- Ratings. Recently, it became known that the first Ukrainian university, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, was included in the highly reputable Shanghai Ranking. The criteria for getting into it are very high, especially for a technical higher education institution. Is it realistic for Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute to be included in it? And how soon do you think it can happen?
- Yes, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv was included in the Shanghai Ranking. But it should be understood that one of its criteria is the presence of Nobel or other similarly ranked scientific prize winners among the university's graduates or staff. They have two such scientists, and one of the graduates of their Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics received the Fields Prize, which is considered to be an analogue of the Nobel Prize in mathematics, relatively recently - in 2022. There are no such laureates among our scientists yet, and we are now looking at what our indicators are in line with the requirements of this prestigious ranking, which could help us close this gap. If, after a thorough analysis, we determine that the only thing holding us back from entering the Shanghai ranking is the lack of such prize winners, then we will only need to improve our other indicators. This is not an end in itself, of course, but our desire to achieve this keeps us on track with the quality of our work. When we know that there are specific goals that we have to achieve, we have to look for the tools that will allow us to do so. In turn, high places in international rankings, or even the fact of being in them, entail an improvement in the financial condition of the university, because this is taken into account in the formulaic funding of universities.
- Another suggestion you made, which provoked a lively discussion, was to create a fairer system of rewarding employees for their conscientious and efficient work. How do you see the mechanisms of such incentives?
- Today, we have a regulatory framework that allows us to set bonuses and reward employees, but preliminary analysis shows that often people who ensure the achievement of high results receive much less than those who seem to manage the process. Sometimes there are a lot of unnecessary links, which means that the representatives of these intermediate links are not the direct executors of projects and developments, but rather the representatives of these intermediate links. That's why additional funds are allocated based on performance. A system will be created: if a person achieves certain targets, this will automatically ensure that he or she receives the appropriate financial reward. If a person simply serves their working hours, then there is nothing to talk about. That is, the system of additional rewards should take into account the additional results achieved or the quality of work. The formula here is simple: “rewards for results”. And the accounting of these results should be simplified. And this applies not only to research and teaching activities. This is also an economic activity. This includes the effective work of, say, our lawyers in courts. This is also the work of energy managers: for example, they ensured energy savings through the introduction of new efficient technologies (but not in such a way that everyone was sitting in the cold because of it). The list goes on and on...
- Your first days and weeks as rector coincided with the admission campaign. It was always difficult, but especially difficult in these times. You and your team managed to cope with its challenges. I think you will talk about its results separately. Now we are finalizing preparations for the start of the school year. Most likely, in the course of this work, you have encountered some new issues for yourself, which, of course, are not impossible to solve, but require a lot of effort and time. This is what is commonly called “turnover”. Do you manage to overcome it and focus on the main issues we have discussed and those we did not have time to mention?
- I will be honest: during my first job, my team and I really had to solve a lot of current issues, including economic ones. Among other things, we had to solve some long-standing problems that suddenly emerged and others. We also have a lot of meetings with external partners. This is necessary to develop, so to speak, a pool of people with whom the university will cooperate in the future, who will be our partners. I won't say that it will be synergy, but together we will achieve a “Win-Win” effect, when both partners and KPI will benefit. So we had to focus primarily on the external contours of the work, but believe me, there was a lot of current work in the first month. We were setting up certain processes. Not everything is done yet, far from it. This is primarily because we are on vacation. We have not significantly reformatted the structure, but we see that in some cases the interaction is a bit complicated, so it should be simplified a bit. Therefore, in a month or two, at a meeting of the Academic Council, we will propose some minor changes to the management system. In general, no one is going to destroy what works well. And we will improve what needs to be improved. However, there are indeed a lot of ongoing cases, but the main thing is that we did not allow the system to stop. On the contrary, we have given it additional impetus in some areas.